Online Journal of the Hudson Valley Coalition for Life.
"Every human being is called to solidarity in a world battling between life and death" - Ignacio Ellacuria, Jesuit martyr in El Salvador

May 03, 2012

Below is the link to the full video on the County website. A total of about 80 speakers. It begins around minute 37 - it is possible to scroll through the video. Most of the early speakers are pro-abortion and speaking on behalf of politicians eager to quash prolife speech outside clinics through the intimidation which is crafted into the bill (Of course that's not how they put it!). However the majority of speakers are pro-free speech, including three women who had abortions in Westchester and say they wish they had received the kind of information given by sidewalk counselors outside clinics.

This is a long video - the testimonies in total run about four hours. We have our own video breaking out many of the different speakers and will be posting it over the next several days.

April 12, 2012

We have decided to publish three video presentations that were given at a last June Westchester County Committee meeting - the Legislation Committee - since the anti-free speech "Clinic Access" bill is STILL being promoted by several legislators. The new bill this year - maybe the seventh or eighth revision - still attempts to suppress our free speech rights.

The presentations opposing the legislation in order below are by attorney John Murtaugh, HVCL co-director Judith Anderson, and HVCL co-director Tom Faranda. We have not publicized this testimony until now. And we will be putting up other videos, including from the pro-abortion people.

December 14, 2011

UPDATE: This video feature at the County Legislature has been viewable inconsistently - it may or may not work. We leave it to your own opinions as to why it may not be running ...

Here is the full video of the Westchester County board meeting on Monday, December 12th, 2011. This contains all of the approximately (forty) 40 speakers who spoke against the so-called "Reproductive Healthcare Access Bill", as well as the four (4) who were in favor of it, including the local Director of Planned Parenthood.

The video is almost four hours long, and contains a good deal of material that is not relevant to the free speech issue, but we do want to enable people who wish to view the entire proceeding to do so. We will be posting excerpts from our own video and audio over the next several days.

December 13, 2011

No one can deny that the pro-abortion lobby in Westchester County has political muscle. Since the spring they have been pressing through their supporters in the Wetchester County Legislature to muzzle the free speech rights of protestors outside Planned Parenthood, and other abortion chambers.

Up until now, we and other pro-life groups have been working quietly to stop these efforts. And we have been partially successful, having eliminated some of the absurd ideas (bubble zones, etc) that were originally being considered.

However - the legislation finally presented out of committee to the full legislative body still seriously infringed on the basic first amendment rights of peaceful, pro-lifers who go to protest abortion. More on this in future postings.

We're pleased to report that over 40 pro-life people spoke out at the County Legislative meeting last night (December 12th, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), including lawyers, sidewalk counselors and victims of abortion. We conclusively demonstrated that the legislation was a disgraceful attack on American values of tolerance and free speech, and the bill was sent back to committee. So the bill should be dead for this year.

Over the next several days we will be posting video from the meeting, as well as letters from attorneys and other sources, which supported the right of pro-life people to speak out peacefully at abortion chambers.

December 08, 2011

A Public Hearing has been called for Monday night, December 12, at the County Board of Legislators Michaelian Building, 148 Martine Avenue at Court Street, 8th floor, White Plains, NY.

Some of you will be receiving calls. We need your support to attend this hearing, to submit written or e-mailed comments, and to speak at the hearing on this attempt to pass a new "Local Law" that tries to initimidate pro-life, 1st Amendment-protected speech at abortion clinics. The proposed law threatens pro-life witness with the expanded ability for lawsuits by the clinics; exhorbitant fines and extended jail terms for protestors.

Remember, no laws have been broken in 15 years; no woman has been prevented from receiving an abortion, if she so wishes. There is no legal basis for this new law, a heavy-handed expansion of already existing state and federal laws to address abortion access concerns. Warnings about potential legal problems with this new law's constitutionality have fallen on deaf ears at the BofL in an attempt to get this passed quickly before the veto-proof supermajority of the current Board is ended.

The law's sponsors are Legislators Myers and Shimsky. This legislation also seeks to regulate a 200-foot area from parking lots and bus stops and limit to 25 feet any approach of individuals entering abortion clinics. No other group that legally protests or shares information on public streets in the County (think unions; think politicians handing out literature) experiences this type of regulation that is really "strangulation" and outright discrimination!

E-mail us at hvcljournal@gmail.com if you can come. Call your County Legislator or write and submit to the Board and Public Hearing your objections to this outrageous piece of legislation.

We'll give you details, and you can read the proposed "Local Law" yourself. Check out videotapes at joint Legislation and Community Service Committee meetings on this legislation at the County Board of Legislators' website, too.